You are here: HomeSportsSoccer2002 10 11Article 28036

Soccer News of Friday, 11 October 2002

Source: .

Ghanaians in Europe Oct. 5-7/2002

  • Ghanaian in Europe: Scorers, Team & Player of the week

    AUSTRIA
    Josko Ried 1-2 Sturm Graz
    Out-of-favour striker Charles Amoah scored the last-gasp winner in Sturm Graz's 2-1 win over SV Ried. His goal kept Graz third in the Austrian first division.

    Liebherr GAK 0-4 FK Austria
    Adu Skelley Tutu (Liebherr GAK) came on in the 56 minute, with his club down 0-2.

    BELGIUM: Jupiler League
    GBA - KV. Mechelen : 2-2
    Kwame Quansah (GBA) and was substituted after 75 minutes. He gave the assist for the 1-0. Blay (Mechelen) played 90 minutes

    CZECH

    DENMARK: Superleague

    FRANCE
    Saint-Etienne 2 Wasquehal 0
    (report by Eric VINCENT) -- Ibrahim RAZAK played the match this week-end. Saint-Etienne beat Wasquehal 2-0. The skill of the team was good and RAZAK played good too. But, he's a young player and he didn't play with the strickers, only with midfielders.

    GERMANY: Bundesliga
    Borussia Monchengladbach 3 : 0 Arminia Bielefeld
    Lawrence Aidoo played 72 minutes and scored two goal in the 32 & 60 min. Courtesy his sterling performance over the weekend, ghanaian international, Lawrence Aidoo has been named in the best eleven bundesliga players for the week.

    Bayern Munich 4 : 1 VFL Bochum
    Leaders Bayern Munich have averted a looming crisis with a convincing 4-1 victory over VfL Bochum in the German first division. Samuel Kuffour played 90 minutes.

    VfL Wolfsburg 2-0 Bayer 04 Leverkusen
    Wolfsburg: C. Reitmaier - T. Rytter, K. Madsen, S. Schnoor, M. Karhan - T. Rau - S. Effenberg, H. Sarpei - R. Ponte (73. C. Akonnor) - T. Maric (88. S. M?ller), D. Klimowicz (73. M. Petrov)

    GREECE: Hellenic National League
    Ofori-Quaye Gets New Life at Olympiakos Black Stars and Greek based striker, Peter Ofori-Quaye’s career with Greek club side, Olmpiakos Piraeus looks promising after the dismissal of coach, Takis Lemonis by the club last week.

    Though the timing of the firing is being questioned, many Greek soccer analysts believe that this would offer Ghanaian striker, the chance to relaunch his career which went through an avalanche of problems this season under the sacked coach, Takis Lemonis. Ofori-Quaye would have to prove to new coach Yiannis Kollias, who has been the head coach of the Greek National Under-21 team for a number of years.

    Takis Lemonis at the beginning of the season informed Ofori-Quaye that he was not in his plans for the season. After keeping him on the bench for sometime, he gave the Ghanaian some playing time but Ofori-Quaye’s contribution in their Champions League campaign showed that Takis Lemonis was wrong.

    Ofori-Quaye rejected a pay-off to terminate his contract when Lemonis insisted that the Black Stars’ attacker leave the club. Olympiakos offered 50% of his final year’s salary and release him from their contractual obligations, free to sign elsewhere. But the vice president of the club, Mr. Louvaris reneged on this offer.

    The offer changed to 10% to release Ofori-Quaye from his shackles. The Ghanaian simply refused to leave, a situation, which made it difficult for the Hellenic club to sign on other foreign players for the season.

    Ofori-Quaye would now have to try and make possible the expectations soccer analysts had in touting him as at the age of 16, as the next George Oppon-Weah.

    The 22-year-old Ghanaian striker, found himself sometime training on his own without supervision, at the training headquarters at Renti on the orders of the fired coach.

    Ofori-Quaye together with Liberian player, Zizi Roberts who was also on Lemonis’ unwanted list used to train all by themselves though the Liberian has since left the Greek club.

    Injuries might have stalled Ofori-Quaye’s promising career but it was a fact that Takis Lemonis never liked him.

    ITALY: Seria A
    Chievo Verona 2-0 Modena
    John Mensah played his first league game for Chievo, as the club pulled away from the bottom four with a 2-0 win at home to Modena thanks to a first half strike from Franceschini and Corini's second half penalty.

    Reggina 2 Brescia 2
    A curling free kick seven minutes from time by Japanese midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura gave Reggina a 2-2 draw at home to Brescia in a game between two sides expected to face fights against relegation.
    Brescia went ahead in the 11th minute when Roberto Baggio fed Markus Schopp whose low cross was converted at the back post by Stephan Appiah. In the 30th minute the Ghanian midfielder, who played a superb match, was hit hard by Morabito and coach Mazzone was forced to replace him with Correa.

    An Alessandro Pierini header brought Reggina level in the 43rd minute but two minutes later Brescia restored their advantage with a penalty from Baggio after Jorge Vargas had brought down Igli Tare.

    NETHERLANDS
    Abubakari Yakubu played the last 20 minutes for Ajax Amsterdam in the match against Feyenoord in Rotterdam, which Ajax won 2-1.

    AZ lose to Vitesse 1-3 Vitesse, clearly inspired by their UEFA Cup success against Rapid Bucharest, travelled to Alkmaar in confident mood and returned home to Arnhem with 3 valuable away points after another convincing performance. Mathew Amoah was the Arnhemmers 'Man of the Match', having a part to play in all 3 goals. Gert Claessens put them ahead from one of his passes after only 5 minutes. Rankovic and Peeters had chances to increase the score but failed while AZ slowly got into the game and Barry van Galen equalized for them from an Ole Tobiasen pass on the stroke of halftime. Although the Alkmaarders looked the more opportunistic team until Vitesse regained control of the tough, physical match and created the best chances. After seeing an eariler attempt cleared off the line by Tim de Cler, Amoah headed in a rankovic cross for the 2nd goal in the 67th. Amoah was there again to set up Nick Hofs with the 3rd to put the result beyond doubt in the 90th.

    PORTUGAL

    ROMANIA

    RUSSIA

    SWEDEN
    Issa Mohammed Resumes Training
    Ghanaian international striker, Issa Mohammed of Swedish club, IFK Norrkoping has defied medical theories, which concluded that the striker would be out of soccer action for the rest of the year as he resumed training last Tuesday.

    Issa, whose continuous stay at Norrkoping was under serious threat because of the knee injury, was given the green light by the club’s doctors to begin training last week. The Ghanaian who underwent a scan last week, revealed that the injured left knee is now the same as that of the right after doctors measured it.

    The 21year-old former Sekondi Hasaacas player damaged his kneecap almost two months ago when during a league game for IFK Norrkoping. The on loan striker after completing a four-hour operation performed by the club’s surgical doctors was said to have damaged his kneecap. Norrkoping club doctors claimed that about 3-4 mm of the kneecap was worn down in the bottom worse than they previously expected.

    The injury situation nearly threatened a long-term contract for the Ghanaian player’s continuous stay in Sweden. IFK Norrkoping officials were at that time considering putting on hold any plans to contract him permanently to the club. His quick return to action though he trains alone might facilitate his permanent stay with the Swedish club considering his potential and age.

    SWITZERLAND

    TURKEY
    Altay 1-3 Fenerbah?e
    Fenerbah?e: R?şt? Re?ber, Fatih Akyel, ?mit ?zat (49 Tuncay Şanlı), Samuel Johnson, Hakan Bayraktar, Miroslav Stević, Ceyhun Eriş (56 Cem Karaca), Og?n Temizkanoğlu, Ali G?neş, Arnaldo Ariel Ortega (88 Milan Rapaić), Niyazi Serhat Akın

    Samsunspor 1-0 Ankarag?c?
    Ankarag?c?: Zafer ?zg?ltekin, G?kmen Barış, Hakan Kutlu, Yılmaz ?zlem, Stephen Baidoo (79 Hami Mandıralı), Stelian Carabas, Hakan Keleş, Horia Radu Niculescu, Augustine Ahinful, Reinaldo Vicente Sim?o, Faruk Namdar (70 Adem Dursun)

    Elaz??spor 0-0 Galatasaray
    Elaz??spor: Richard Kingston, Misko Mirković, Emrah Eren Kurnaz (77 Mehmet Deliorman), Cem Beceren, Osman Ye?ilme?e, ?m?t Hatipo?lu, Hac? Arif Durgut, Erhan Naml?, Mehmet Ali ?akmak (69 Erdem Gen?), Cem Yan?k, Lubomir Mezsaros (65 H?seyin Yenikan)

    Team of the Week

    Richard Kingston

    S. Johnson S. Kuffour J. Mensah Baidoo

    H. Sarpei L. Aidoo S. Appiah G. Aduobe

    M. Amoah C. Amoah